In memoriam: Victims remembered

Ross Abdallah AlameddineAlameddine, 20, of Saugus, Mass., was a sophomore who had just declared English as his major.

Friends created a memorial page on Facebook.com that described Alameddine as "an intelligent, funny, easygoing guy."

"You're such an amazing kid, Ross," wrote Zach Allen, who along with Alameddine attended Austin Preparatory School in Reading, Mass. "You always made me smile, and you always knew the right thing to do or say to cheer anyone up."

[Associated Press]

Christopher James BishopBishop, 35, taught German at Virginia Tech and helped oversee an exchange program with a German university.

Bishop decided which German-language students at Virginia Tech could attend the Darmstadt University of Technology to improve their German.

"He would teach them German in Blacksburg, and he would decide which students were able to study" abroad, Darmstadt spokesman Lars Rosumek said.

[Associated Press]

Brian BluhmBluhm, 25, was a graduate student in civil engineering who was working toward a master's degree in water resources. He considered Blacksburg his hometown, but he was really from all over. He was born in Iowa and went to high school in Louisville, Ky. He spent his childhood in Detroit, where he became an avid Tigers fan.

His next stop, friends say, was Maryland. He was set to finish his courses and defend his master's thesis early this summer, and had already accepted a job in Baltimore and found an apartment there, said his best friend, Michael Marshall, 25, of Richmond. He said Bluhm had plans to start his new job in July.

"He was a real lovable, genuine, peaceful person," said Marshall, who roomed with Mr. Bluhm while both were undergraduates at Virginia Tech.

[New York Times News Service]

Austin CloydCloyd, the 19-year-old daughter of an accounting professor at Virginia Tech, was killed in French class.

"She was a beautiful young girl," said Charles Evans, a University of Illinois associate vice president who was a neighbor when Cloyd's father taught at the Urbana-Champaign campus of the University of Illinois from 1999 to 2005.

Ryan ClarkLalanti Antolin met Clark in a characteristic freshman moment: He had walked into the Virginia Tech dining hall for the first time and felt completely lost.

"I was like, 'How do I get food?'" Antolin, 19, said. "Stack," as everybody called the energetic resident assistant, "acted like he already knew me."

Antolin, a member of Virginia Tech's Cadet Corps who will become a Navy officer when he graduates, said he saw Clark two or three times a week. Clark was as proud to be in the "Marching Virginians" -- Tech's marching band -- as Antolin was to be in the corps.

[Brad Olson]

Jocelyne Couture-NowakCouture-Nowak, a French instructor at Virginia Tech, was instrumental in the creation of the first French school in a town in Nova Scotia.

She lived there in the 1990s with her husband, Jerzy Nowak, the head of the horticulture department at Virginia Tech.

A student who identified herself as DeAnne Leigh Pelchat described her gratitude to Couture-Nowak on a Web site. "I will forever remember you and what you have done for me and the others that benefit from what you did in the little town of Truro," Pelchat wrote in French. "You'll always have a place in my heart."

[Associated Press]

Daniel Perez CuevaPerez Cueva, 21, from Peru, was killed while in a French class, said his mother, Betty Cueva, who was reached by telephone at the youth's listed telephone number.

Perez Cueva was a student of international relations, according to the Virginia Tech Web site.

His father, Flavio Perez, spoke of the death earlier to RPP radio in Peru. He lives in Peru and said he was trying to obtain a humanitarian visa from the U.S. consulate there. He is separated from Cueva, who said she had lived in the United States for six years.

[Associated Press]

Kevin GranataGranata, a professor of engineering science and mechanics who spent three years at the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory in the late 1980s, served in the military and later conducted orthopedic research in hospitals before coming to Virginia Tech, where he and his students researched muscle and reflex response and robotics.

The head of the school's engineering science and mechanics department called Granata one of the top five biomechanics researchers in the country working on movement dynamics in cerebral palsy.

"He was a bright young guy who came here from school, had a lot of energy and was very capable," said Joseph S. Lombardo, who was Granata's supervisor and is now director of the lab's Center of Excellence in Public Health and Informatics. "Kevin had a very good scientific background and was able to do a substantial level of analysis."

[Eric Siegel]

Matthew G. GwaltneyGwaltney, 24, was on the brink of finishing his graduate degree and was planning to return to his hometown for a new job and to be near his parents.

He was a master's student in civil and environmental engineering and was attending Virginia Tech on a fellowship, his father, Greg Gwaltney, said yesterday from his home in Chester, Va., near Richmond.

Gwaltney had been the high school school newspaper's sports editor and named "Best guy to take home to your parents," said his principal, Robert Stansberry.

"He went to every women's and men's basketball game, and went to every football game," his mother, Linda Gwaltney, said. "If there was a football game, we knew he wasn't coming home that weekend."

[Associated Press]

Caitlin HammarenHammaren, 19, of Westtown, N.Y., was a sophomore majoring in international studies and French, according to officials at her former school district.

"She was just one of the most outstanding young individuals that I've had the privilege of working with in my 31 years as an educator," said John P. Latini, principal of Minisink Valley High School, where she graduated in 2005. "Caitlin was a leader among our students."

Minisink Valley students and teachers shared their grief yesterday at a counseling center set up in the school, Latini said.

[Associated Press]

Rachael HillHill was a freshman studying biology at Virginia Tech after graduating from Grove Avenue Christian School in Henrico County, Va. Hill, an only child, was popular and funny, had a penchant for shoes and was competitive on the volleyball court.

"Rachael was a very bright, articulate, intelligent, beautiful, confident, poised young woman. She had a tremendous future in front of her," said Clay Fogler, administrator for the Grove Avenue school. "Obviously, the Lord had other plans for her."

Her father, Guy Hill, said the family was too distraught to talk about Hill yesterday, but relatives were planning to have memorial events later in the week. "We just need some time here," he said tearfully.

[Associated Press]

Emily Jane HilscherHilscher loved animals, especially horses.

A native of Woodville, Va., a rural city about two hours west of Washington, Hilscher was one of the first two students who were killed in a coed dormitory about 7:15 a.m., two hours before Cho Seung-Hui chained the doors in an engineering building and went on a rampage.

Hilscher's friends said they had no idea what could have led Cho to kill her and weren't aware of any relationship between them.

"In all honesty, we have no clue who would have done this," said Kasey Arrington, a freshman and close friend at Virginia Tech. "She had no enemies. No one disliked her. She was always so happy, always smiling. No one knows who would have done this. It doesn't make sense."

[Bradley Olson]

Jeremy HerbstrittHerbstritt loved to chat, so much so that high school classmates voted him "Most Talkative."

Herbstritt, 27, had two undergraduate degrees from Penn State, one in biochemistry and molecular biology from 2003, and another in civil engineering from 2006.

He grew up on a small farm just outside the central Pennsylvania borough of Bellefonte, where his father, Michael, raised steer and sheep.

[Associated Press]

Jarrett Lee LaneLane, 22, was a senior civil engineering student who was valedictorian of his high school class in tiny Narrows, Va., just 30 miles from Virginia Tech.

His family released a statement that reads:

"All of us are still deeply stunned and in shock over the loss of our son, grandson, and brother, Jarrett Lee Lane. He was a fun-loving young man, full of spirit. He had a caring heart and was a friend to everybody he met."

He was born in China as Henh P. Ly, and his parents came to the United States when he was in elementary school, said Susan Lewyer Willis, the principal at William Fleming High School. She said he changed his name to Henry Lee when he became a citizen last year.

In high school, in addition to working at a Sears store, he was such a diligent student that he won nearly all the awards in his senior year, including the Burger King award, which entitled every classmate to a card with Lee's picture on it that could be exchanged for a free Whopper sandwich.

As salutatorian, he was asked to give a speech but was so nervous that he had to be coaxed into it, Willis said.

"He said to them," she recounted, "'Imagine sitting in class not knowing the language. Now I am No. 2 in my class.' It was such a proud moment."

[New York Times News Service]

Partahi LombantoruanLombantoruan's family in Indonesia said that they sold off property and cars to pay his tuition and that his goal was to become a teacher in the United States.

Lombantoruan, a 34-year-old doctoral student, had been studying civil engineering at Virginia Tech for three years, said his father, Tohom Lombantoruan, a 66-year-old retired army officer.

"We tried everything to completely finance his studies in the United States," he said. "We only wanted him to succeed in his studies, but ... he met a tragic fate."

[Associated Press]

Minal PanchalPanchal, a graduate student from India, often fretted about her decision to move so far from home to go to school. Her father had died last year, said friend Yogesh Gaikwad, and Panchal would lament that her "mother is alone in Bombay."

Gaikwad said they were part of a close circle of friends, mostly Indian students, who held weekly dinners. Panchal was her usual bubbly self at last week's event, Friday night. "She's like a big sister to me," he said. "She's so pretty. It's hard to imagine she's not with us anymore."

Matthew J. La PorteAt the Carson Long Military Institute in Pennsylvania, a flag in the middle of campus flies at half-staff today in honor of La Porte, 20-year-old a graduate of the school who went on to Virginia Tech University.

La Porte, a freshman attending Virginia Tech on an ROTC scholarship, loved art and music and planned to join the Air Force after college, hoping to become an officer.

"I know that as an Air Force officer he would have been outstanding," Lt. Col. Rodney P. Grove, the school's commander of cadets, said. "I also know that he was looking for something in his life that would allow him to really make a difference in other people's lives. He was desperate to make a difference."

[New York Times News Service]

Liviu LibrescuLibrescu was delivering a lecture in Norris Hall's Room 204 when the shooting began. Junior Richard Mallalieu said Librescu quietly secured the door while the students kicked in the windows and jumped to safety as the gunman approached.

Reached at home, his wife could not talk yesterday. Late Monday afternoon she had not been informed of her husband's fate. The Israeli Embassy in Washington confirmed that Librescu was a Holocaust survivor.

"He was one of the last faculty members who would always wear a necktie and a jacket," Demetri Telionis, a longtime colleague in Virginia Tech's engineering mechanics department, said. "He retained the class of old Europe. He was quite the character."

G.V. LoganathanLoganathan was born in the southern Indian city of Chennai and had been a civil and environmental engineering professor at Virginia Tech since 1982.

Loganathan, 51, won several awards for excellence in teaching, had served on the faculty senate and was an adviser to about 75 undergraduate students.

"We all feel like we have had an electric shock. We do not know what to do," his brother G.V. Palanivel told the NDTV news channel from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. "He has been a driving force for all of us, the guiding force."

[Associated Press]

Lauren McCainMcCain, a 20-year-old international studies major from Hampton, Va., was an active member of her Baptist church.

Yesterday, her pastor, the Rev. David Bounds, read from a birthday letter McCain recently sent to her friend Amy. "I can only imagine ... how wonderful heaven will be," she wrote, adding that she hoped that she and Amy had "more than 21 more years to continue to grow together."

"Easter Sunday was the last day I had with Lauren," said McCain's uncle Cordell Woods. "She was filled with a purpose. There was nothing negative in her life. And that's the way I want to remember her."

[Newport News Daily Press]

Daniel O'NeilO'Neil, 22, of Rhode Island, was a graduate student in engineering and played guitar and wrote his own songs, which he posted on a Web site, www.residenthippy.com.

Friend Steve Craveiro described him as smart, responsible and a hard worker, someone who never got into trouble.

"He would come home from school over the summer and talk about projects, about building bridges and stuff like that," Craveiro said. "He loved his family. He was pretty much destined to be extremely successful. He just didn't deserve to have happen what happened."

[Associated Press]

Juan Ramon OrtizOrtiz, 26, who was from Puerto Rico, was teaching a class as part of his graduate program in civil engineering at Virginia Tech.

The family's neighbors in the San Juan suburb of Bayamon remembered Ortiz as a quiet, dedicated son who decorated his parents' one-story concrete house each Christmas and played in a salsa band with his father on weekends.

"He was an extraordinary son, what any father would have wanted," said Ortiz's father, also named Juan Ramon Ortiz.

[Associated Press]

Minal PanchalPanchal, 26, wanted to be an architect like her father, who died four years ago.

She was very keen to go to the United States for postgraduate studies and thrilled when she gained admission last year, said Chetna Parekh, a friend who lives in the bustling middle-class Mumbai neighborhood of Borivali, India, where Panchal lived before coming to Virginia Tech. "She was a brilliant student and very hardworking. She was focussed on getting her degree and doing well."

Panchal was worried about her mother, Hansa, living alone and wanted her to come to the U.S., neighbor Jayshree Ajmane said. Hansa left earlier this month for New Jersey, where her sister and brother-in-law live.

Ajmane called Panchal a bright, polite girl who would help the neighborhood children with their schoolwork.

[Associated Press]

Erin PetersonPeterson, another Westfield High School classmate of the gunman, was 6-foot-1 and played center for the school's girls basketball team, helping lead it to a district championship.

"She could do a layup on anyone," said Anna Richter, a high school teammate. She recalled how Peterson's parents attended nearly every game and were among the most enthusiastic fans.

Pat Deegan, Peterson's high school coach, said he couldn't remember a better leader.

Peterson, 18, and shooting victim Reema Samaha both graduated from Westfield last year, according to Barbara Burke, a spokeswoman for Fairfax County Public Schools.

"She was just a super child," William Lloyd, Erin's godfather, told the Washington City Paper. "Her and her dad, man, you couldn't separate them. He lost a child from cancer -- a daughter, 8 years old. A week later, (Erin) was born."

Lloyd said that Erin and her father, Grafton Peterson, did part ways on one thing: pro-football allegiances. "She was a Redskin," he said. "He was a Cowboy."

[Associated Press]

Michael PohlePohle, 23, of Flemington, N.J., was expected to graduate in a few weeks with a degree in biological sciences, said Craig Blanton, Hunterdon Central's vice principal during the 2002 school year, when Pohle graduated.

"He had a bunch of job interviews and was all set to start his post-college life," Blanton told The Star-Ledger of Newark.

At the high school, Pohle played on the football and lacrosse teams.

One of his old lacrosse coaches, Bob Shroeder, described him as "a good kid who did everything that good kids do."

"He tried to please," Shroeder told the newspaper. "He was just a great kid."

[Associated Press]

Julia PrydePryde, a graduate student from Middletown, N.J., was an "exceptional student academically and personally," said Saied Mostaghimi, chairman of the biological systems and engineering department where Pryde was seeking her master's degree.

"She was the nicest person you ever met," Mostaghimi told The Star-Ledger of Newark.

Last summer, Pryde had traveled to Ecuador to research water quality issues with a professor. She planned to return this summer for follow-up work, Mostaghimi said.

A 2001 graduate of Middletown North High School, Pryde was on the school's swim team and played softball in two town leagues.

Her hometown has been touched by tragedy before, losing 37 current and former residents in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"The town pulls together in these situations. Everything that we can do for this family, we'll see what can be done," Middletown Mayor Gerard P. Scharfenberger said.

[Associated Press]

Mary Karen ReadRead was born in South Korea into an Air Force family and lived in Texas and California before settling in the northern Virginia suburb of Annandale.

Read, 19, considered a handful of colleges, including nearby George Mason University, before choosing Virginia Tech. It was a popular destination among her Annandale High School classmates, according to her aunt Karen Kuppinger.

She had yet to declare a major. "I think she wanted to try to spread her wings," said Kuppinger, of Rochester, N.Y.

[Associated Press]

Reema J. SamahaReema Samaha was a freshman. The Centreville, Va., resident fit the profile of a gifted student beginning to blossom.

"She was a young lady that was growing in every way," her father, Joseph Samaha, told CNN. "She was a great student, on the dean's list first semester."

Samaha, 18, spoke French and was planning to spend part of her summer in France with her sister working at a camp for children, according to Lu Ann McNabb, a family friend and neighbor who described her as "a delightful girl, full of joy."

"We had said goodbye Saturday evening, that was the last we spoke to her and saw her," Joseph Samaha said. "We were to come back next weekend for another event, but unfortunately that's not going to happen."

[Los Angeles Times]

Waleed Mohammed ShaalanShaalan, of Zagazig, Egypt, was married and the father of a 1-year-old son, according to the Muslim Students Association at Virginia Tech.

"He was the simplest and nicest guy I ever knew. We would be studying for our exams and he would go buy a cake and make tea for us," Fahad Pasha, Waleed's roommate, said on the association's Web site.

Shaalan, 32, was a doctoral student in civil engineering, the university said.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Wednesday that the Egyptian embassy in Washington was taking steps to fly his body home.

[Associated Press]

Leslie ShermanSherman, an avid traveler, was headed to Russia this summer to study, said her grandmother, Gerry Adams.

Sherman, a sophomore history and international studies student from Springfield, Va., had visited Boston and London with her mother; she visited her grandparents in Kennewick, Wash., last month for spring break, Adams said.

Sherman -- who was named after her grandfather, Leslie -- loved reading and socializing with her "gaggle" of more than 15 cousins spread out at colleges across the country, Adams said. She text-messaged one of them the evening before she died.

"She was so happy. Life was going so well for her," said Adams, who described the family as "just beside themselves" with grief.

[Associated Press]

Maxine TurnerMaxine Turner already had job offers. A 22-year-old chemical engineering senior, she had a deep bench of good friends and a range of interests, from tae kwan do to German. It was in her German class that she died.

"I don't think she looked at being a woman in science as a handicap, she thought it was unique, uncommon and very special," said Cady Hendershot, a 21-year-old biology junior who met Turner when they lived in the same dormitory.

Turner came from a middle-class family in a Virginia suburb about five hours from campus, though the contrast between frenetic Washington and quiet Blacksburg made the distance seem greater.

"She was willing to work her way up from the very bottom," Hendershot said. "She was honest, very candid. She was one of the most amazing people you could know."

[Los Angeles Times]

Nicole WhiteWhite, a Virginia Tech junior who was pursuing a double major in international studies and German, was known for her love of animals and the water.

She worked at a barn during high school, cleaning stables and caring for horses, said Chance Hellman, a childhood friend. She volunteered at another stable in Blacksburg and during summer vacation worked as a lifeguard.